"I can't believe that those surveillance camera's caught all that violence..." Rachel bit her bottom lip as she shook her head in disbelief.
"It was one thing living through that day," Blaine let out a shaky breath while Kurt squeezed his hand comfortingly "It was another watching it all over again, as a whole new generational watched in horror. I tried to convince Will not to show it in the first place, but..."
"Mr Schue is what some people call... hard headed." Kurt finished.
Blaine nodded in confirmation.
"He doesn't like to think that there is a possibility he's wrong. His gift is him knowing everything, after all. He's not a bad person, though."
Kurt cleared his throat and tapped his watch.
"As much as I love this story- actually no, I freaking hate it. We have to head to class in like... twenty minutes."
Blaine pulled Kurt into a tight hug and pecked his death and gave Rachel a small wave.
"See you guys at dinner, Will asked me to help handle a... package that arrived earlier."
Kurt and Rachel watched as Blaine walked off down the hall in the other direction never looking back.
Rachel looked at Kurt curiously as she walked along side Kurt towards the dorms, the boy was wearing an unreadable expression that sent chills down her spine.
"Does this have anything to do with the package that Sam Evans was yelling about in the elevator yesterday? It seems quite important. If it is important, you don't have to go through all this effort of keeping it a secret. I am completely trustworthy, I was a girl scout you know. Well, that is until they realized I had two gay dad's. But still it didn't take me all that long before I exceeded higher than the average scout in my age bracket-"
"Rachel?"
"Yes, Kurt?"
"Stop talking."
Rachel blushed. It had been so long since she rambled. Okay, three days top. But that was huge for her. She knew her long-winded rambling drove people crazy, she couldn't help it. She rambled when she was nervous or excited. Kurt flashed her a quick smile to show that he wasn't mad.
"You should probably head to your room and get changed. There should be a leather uniform n your closet."
0o0o0o0o0o0
Rachel stood at the top of dark, winding, descending stair case. The only source of light were the occasional torch placed a long it's metal walls.
"Umm... Are you sure there isn't another elevator we are unaware of."
"You can't build an elevator in a mountain. You'd have to borrow out the mountain, we're super not suicidal... You look good in that outfit." he looked appraisingly at Rachel in the standard black, leather armour.
'Really? I think I look like cat woman.'
The deeper they descended the colder it got. She wished she had brought a sweater now.
"I-I thought you held t-training sessions in the gym." she chattered. The sound of her clicking teeth echoing off the wall.
Kurt chuckled at his new friends dramatics.
"It's not that cold, Streisand. And to answer your question, today we are sparring." he answered excitedly.
"Sp-paring? I j-just got here!"
"Don't worry, you already know people. Sam and Puck are in this class also. And Tina told me you were her roommate, she's in this class too with her friends. The only person that could possibly take the advantage of a new student would be-"
"Berry! Speak of the devil, get your short ass over here!"
"Santana..." he finished a bit too late.
The two teens stood at the bottom of the stairwell. The sparring room was huge. It was large and circular to make it look like the room was a ginormous sphere, tile with white, reflective tiles. Students were scattered all over the room standing in their 'clicks', right at the furthest side of the room, Santana stood with Brittany firmly glued to her side. Rachel's heart sunk. Did this girl have to be in every class she had?
"Rach! Over here!" the tall blonde called happily, waving her arms frantically. Santana scowled in annoyance as everyone in the room looked towards them.
"Don't worry, Rachel. I've been in school just as long as the Unholy Trinity, trust me, if you treat them like everyone else the have nothing over you." Kurt said reassuringly.
"So I should just treat them like any other person? Do you want them to hit me?"
Kurt giggled and pushed her towards the two girls.
"Go. If you don't soon, Brittany's arms are going to fly out of her sockets."
Rachel swallowed her nervousness and made her way over to Brittany and Santana. Before she could get a word out in greeting, Brittany enveloped her into a tight hug.
"Sanny! Look, it's Rachel!"
Well... The girl was definitely affectionate.
Rachel looked around Brittany's shoulder to see a very angry latina. Rachel tapped on the blonde's shoulders frantically as she saw Santana's metallic claws start to extend.
"Brittany. I-I think I have a sore back from... um, from not exercising enough..." she ended lamely.
Brittany pulled away and pouted.
"San, why doesn't anyone like my hugs?" she asked sadly to the darker girl.
Santana gave her a comforting smile.
"You heard the, hobbit. Her back hurt. I she was lying than she doesn't deserve hugs as awesome as yours."
Brittany's face instantly lit up and she pulled Santana into an amorous hug. Rachel met Santana's eyes over Brittany's shoulder. It was like they were silently communicating. Santana's eyes read something along the lines of, 'Touch my Brittany again and I will cut you.'.
Message Received.
"Oh look, Satan's gone soft."
And now Queen Fabray graces them with her presence.
Santana flips her off, while managing to still hold Brittany.
"Well, well. What were the odds of you being in this class with us, Rachel?"
"Mathematically. 50/50. Hardly anyone attends this school."
Quinn smacked Santana over her head causing the latina to growl.
"So, Berry, ready to gets your brawl on?" Santana asked, smirking.
"To answer your question, Santana. I have to say I am ill prepared for this class. I have not attended any martial arts courses in Lima, and I have none of your training that the three of you acquired at this school. I do, however, work out quite often, so I should be able to keep up in the warm up."
The three girls looked at her for a few seconds before Quinn burst out laughing.
"Wow, Berry. You really are a mystery aren't you?"
"Well, I have just gotten my 'sea legs', so to speak. This school is quite unusual for an outsider."
Quinn and Santana shared a mischievous smirk.
"Don't worry. We take care of each other here... well, as long as you don't screw yourself up."
"How would I do that?"
The conversation ceased when someone who seemed to be the coach, a very large, rugged lady covered in scars, entered the room and started barking.
"Listen Up! Mr Schuester is taking care of other business, so lucky you, today you get me."
The class groaned.
"Oh, suck it up you sissies, I'm not that bad."
The large woman made her way to the centre of the room, students parted, standing along the wall, Rachel was squeezed in between Quinn and a dark skinned girl who greeted her.
"Hey, new girl. Names Mercedes."
Rachel smiled.
"Rachel Berry."
"Okay, Rachel Berry, you are about to see something extreme."
The coach stood still in the middle of the room. Rachel didn't know exactly what she was supposed to be watching for until-
"Shannon Bieste, 41 years of age, 6'1, 250 ilbs, ...mutation: super-human strength, speed, and natural climbing abilities." a metallic voice rang out.
'This is the girl that Blaine was friends with... Well, she isn't in very good shape.' Rachel thought, examining Coach Bieste's long scars that ran along her arms and across her face.
"You all no the drill, partner up, warm up, push your partner to the limits, at the end of class we will pair you up randomly to test your skills." the coach's deep voice rang out. "Pick your partner's!"
Before Rachel could suggest that she and Mercedes should be partners, she saw the other girl sprint off towards a boy with a animatronic arms and legs.
'Please, don't get paired with Quinn. Please, don't let her pick me.'
"Guess who?" two large hands soon covered her hands, so Rachel decided to play along.
"Uh... Is it... Sam?" she guessed, coyly.
She heard Noah snort behind her and lifted his hands.
"You suck at this game."
She giggled and slapped his shoulder gently.
"You should know, that I have beaten my father's and Finn every time we played 'Who Done It?' together."
"And you probably cheated too."
"I did no-"
"Puck, baby, I thought you were partnering with Sam." Quinn gritted out with her teeth clenched.
"I thought I'd teach Rachel some of the moves, I don't want her to be completely helpless out there." Noah answered, grinning goofily.
"It's okay, baby, I got this, you don't have to pair with her. Besides, I don't have a-"
"Hey, Q-Quinn. D-do you have a partner."
Sam stood on the spot, wringing his hands nervously, his head occasionally snapping up, connecting hopeful green with exasperated hazel.
"See, problem solved! Come on, Princess, let's teach you to be a bad-ass. Don't worry, I'll tone it down on the strength." Noah led her by the shoulders to an open are far away from the two blondes.
"Okay, first hold goes a little something like..."
Rachel found out that she had absolutely no upper body strength. She did, however, have lot's of strength in her lower body which gave her the advantage of kicking and tripping. It took hardly any time at all for Rachel to get a hang on combat, much to Noah's surprise.
After ten more minutes of talking about fighting techniques, Noah, out of nowhere, changed the subject.
"I'm sorry about Quinn. She can be... hard to read." Rachel delivered a low kick to Noah's ankles causing his legs to buckle but he quickly regained his stature.
The shorter girl decided to play dumb.
"I have no idea what you are talking about, Noah." she replied, ducking one of Noah's jabs.
"Oh really?" Noah raised his eyebrows and looked at Rachel skeptically. "Then you wouldn't mind if you switched places with Sam.
Rachel froze in fear. Noah used the opportunity to pull Rachel into a loose headlock so not to hurt the shorter girl.
"You can't fool me, princess. Don't worry, Quinn's bark is worse than her bite."
Rachel mule kicked Noah, accidentally hitting him in the crotch.
"Sorry about that." Noah grunted in response and tackled Rachel's legs bringing them both to the ground. "I do admit she has this odd fascination with me, but it's no big deal." she scrambled out of Noah's hold and quickly got to his feet.
Noah placed his hands behind his head, using his upper body strength to spring back to his feet. The two circled each other, bouncing lightly on their feet, waiting for an opening from their opponent.
"Just keep in mind, she's been through a lot."
"She has?" Rachel asked, not letting her guard down. "What happened?"
"It's not my place to * ugh * tell..." Rachel shot a round house kick to his right side while he was speaking, this time he was to slow to block her and he took the kick to the kidney.
"I -damn!- respect that." she replied, only to have her elbow strike blocked by Noah. He twisted her elbow causing her arm to bend in a way it really shouldn't be bent. Her free arm swung backwards and connected with the larger boys head. Noah only grunted, hardly fazed at all, and swept her legs out from under her.
A loud buzzer sounded as soon as Rachel's back hit the mat.
"That's enough! Everyone back on the wall, let's get into some real fighting!"
Noah held out his hand for Rachel to take, she grabbed it and yelped in surprise as Noah yanked her up effortlessly.
"Wow, you must have hated holding back."
Noah shrugged.
"Not really, it's good practice. And you weren't bad for a first timer."
"What can I say, dancing and fighting are more similar than one would think." she beamed up at him and her eyes widened in realization "Now that you think about it, this could be helpful when I make it to the big times and I have to learn mock fights."
Puck chuckled and walked away to stand next to a beaming Sam and Rachel took her spot between Quinn and Mercedes.
"Hey, girl. I saw you fighting with Puckerman, not bad." Mercedes complimented causing Rachel to throw her a thankful smile.
She was about to thank her when Quinn voiced her opinion as well.
"Hm... Not bad I suppose. But mock fighting with Puck isn't going to help you with the real deal." she glared down at the smaller girl, "It actually seemed that you were really enjoying wrestling with my boyfriend, Berry." she hissed in Rachel's ear.
"Okay first match up..." Coach Bieste shouted at the class, snapping everyone to attention. "Droid!"
Weak applause filled the room as the boy she had seen earlier, with the animatronic limbs made his way to his spot in the room, his legs whizzing and clunking as he moved. He was like a large robot. His legs were about as tall as 3/4 of her height.
"Arthur Abrams, 16 years of age, 6'1, 270 ilbs,... mutation: advanced knowledge in machinery."
"Whoo! Go Artie!" Mercedes hollered from next to her.
"And..." Shannon Bieste held for suspense... "Python!"
"Samuel Evans, 17 years of age, 6'0, 167 ilbs,... mutation: reptilian morphing."
Sam's applause was much louder than Artie's, he smiled smugly as he made his way to his position opposite of the robot boy.
"Get ready to taste your own metal, Droid."
Artie swallowed nervously and got into his ready position.
"On the count of three... ONE! TWO! THREE, FIGHT!"
The buzzer sounded and Artie clunked as fast as he could over to Sam, who was standing still and smirking.
She didn't see it at first, but as Artie advanced Sam slowly grew in size. She only noticed when it was clear Sam's head was level with Artie's. Also, he didn't seem to have any legs.
Sam's entire bottom half was a serpents body and his eyes glowed a menacing yellow, his pupils dilated. He looked like a creature from ancient legend.
Black scales circled his body up to his waist line, his tail swished and shot out at Artie's metal with a loud clank causing Artie to reel back and try to regain his balance. The crowd cheered as Sam morphed back to his normal form, mock bowing as Artie clambered up.
"There's still two minutes left on the clock, Evans! Keep going!"
Sam's eyes changed back to it's bright yellow. He rolled his eyes as his forked tongue flicked out of his wide mouth. Rachel expected him to change back into the large snake-like monster, but instead he shrunk down to a smaller, but still large and quite long, python.
He circled Artie's crumpled form as the boy tried to get up. The black python got closer and closer, succeeding in wrapping around Artie tight enough for the boy to gasp for oxygen.
"Evans! We're done, back to the circle! Puckerman, help Abrams up!"
Noah sauntered to Artie's crumpled form and effortlessly lifted the cyborg. Rachel flinched at the crumpling sound of metal, to her this seemed like an unfair match up.
After that things got more and more interesting. Rachel watched in awe as different kids like her showed their unique talents.
"Match Number Five! First opponent... Cerebra!" Coach Bieste announced.
"Annalise Freeman, 18 years of age, 5'7, 125 ilbs... mutation: telekinesis."
Rachel noticed as Annalise made her way to the centre of the room nervously.
'I can understand why. Her power is telekinesis, there is hardly anything to control in here.'
"And... Claws!"
"Santana Lopez, 17 years of age, 5'5, 119 ilbs... mutation: keen senses, enhanced physical capabilities, retracting claws, and regeneration."
Santana extended her metal claws quickly and prowled to her spot, she was greeted by thundering applause and appreciative whistles.
"Ready for round two, bitch?" Santana asked, her voice sickeningly sweet.
"Let's get this over with."
"Wooh! Go Sanny! Kick her ass!"
Everyone looked at the tall blonde in shock. Apparently she didn't make statements like that often.
"What? She interrupted me and San's sexy times."
A few guys hollered and whistled at that.
"Brit, when we get back to the dorm me and you are gonna have a talk."
So blah, blah, blah, Santana. Blah, blah, blah, claws. Blah, blah, blah, Annalise put up quite a struggle but in the end Santana was victorious and Annalise had to go visit Holly again.
"Okay, last fight of the day. Sorry we couldn't get to all of you." Coach Bieste flipped through her notepad. "Let's see, first fighter... Frost!"
Quinn stepped into the ring. Rachel never thought that a room of eighteen kids could make this much noise.
"Quinn Fabray, 17 years of age, 5'6, 116 ilbs... mutation: Cryokinesis."
"And versing her we have... The New Girl!"
'Ooh, I got a new nickname.'
"Girl, you better get moving." Mercedes said as she pushed her into the ring.
Rachel awkwardly made her way in silence to her spot across from Quinn, who's suggestion was unreadable.
"Rachel Berry, 17 years of age, 5'2, 110 ilbs... mutation: Sonic Vocals."
Quinn POV:
Rachel Berry is a curious case. I honestly have no idea if she could be of any value. Santana's been down my neck since she met her only this morning. She's wondering why I've taken an interest in her. I don't know. I do know that something deep inside me is telling me to pursue interaction with her.
When she told me she had claimed a life I was shocked. Someone so small and delicate could not possibly do that.
I see the way Puck looks at her. It makes me want to vomit up the bacon I had for breakfast this morning. Don't get me wrong, I don't give two flying fucks about him. But we both share something in common, and I'm not going to let the little dwarf take him away. He is vital.
She's standing across from me, looking like she's in trouble. That she was wishing she wasn't up here, or was she wishing I wasn't up here. For some reason that thought hurts. It shouldn't but it does.
I've never felt this feeling before, the need for someone to like me. Yes, I'm popular but I've never worked hard for it.
Rachel Berry, how can I want to hurt you and want you to like me at the same time. In the end there can only be one.
Like my father once said.
"Identifying weakness is the key to victory."
I've found mine, now I must hide it.
Rachel POV:
"Ow, ow, ow."
"Honey, you have to hold still if you want the energy to flow."
I'm sitting in Ms Holiday's reclining chair as she tends to my frost bites. I see the dark blue and purple splotches in my arm start to slowly fade away as the burning sensation take over my body.
The only thing I remember from the sparring was practising with Noah, watching a few fights, and blue... lot's and lot's of blue. Also cold. Freezing cold.
"Ah-ah... AH-CHOO!" I grab a tissue, I feel like complete crap.
"I'm sorry honey, I can only heal the big things, and the common cold that Fabray gave you isn't a big thing."
I want to go home. I want to be eating supper with my father's than run over to Finn's house to hear him ramble on about his stupid football game. I don't want to be stuck here, where getting frost bites are a daily activity. I want to be normal.
Obviously, I no longer have that luxury.
0o0o Back To Normal 0o0o
"H-Hey, R-Rachel. I stocked up on t-t-tissue. Mercedes fought Q-Quinn two weeks ago, so I know the whole d-drill."
"Damn, girl, I've never seen Fabray ice someone in less than ten seconds before. What did you do to get on her hit list."
"I'm going to have to put the uniform in the drier for it to be able to wear again."
"Damn, and I thought I had it tough with Sam. She whooped your-"
Rachel lay on the bed as Tina, Mercedes, Artie, and Kurt fuss over her. Tina kept running back and forth to their dorm hand Holly's to get medical advice, Mercedes and Artie had said a few... comforting words, and Kurt was worried about her uniform. And her too, of course.
"Artie, may I say your limbs are quite extraordinary." Rachel said, trying to steer the attention away from her, for once in her life.
"Yeah well, they aren't meant for combat. When I was young, my mom and I got into a car accident. She was okay, but I was paralysed from the neck down. I built this body as soon as scouts from this school wheeled me through the front door. Well... I couldn't build it, Mr Schue and some engineers helped out."
"When they were in construction, I wasn't really thinking about fighting. I just wanted to move again. And also have working thumbs. Now I realize that if I want to get ahead in this school, I need an upgrade. Maybe an artillery gun..." he trailed off thoughtfully.
"I think they're magnificent the way they are." she responded, trying to make the boy feel better.
"Yeah, Artie. Just because Evan's went all 'snake charmer' on your ass, doesn't mean your not good enough."
"Y-y-yeah, M-Mercedes and Rachel are right, your c-cool the way you are."
"I know but," Artie got up from the floor, noisily "It wouldn't hurt to make some adjustments-"
Someone knocked on the door, loudly, cutting off the rest of Artie's sentence.
"Tina, could you get that." Rachel coughed.
The loud knocking continued until the goth swung the door open.
"H-Hey."
"Hey..."
A/N: Yes, this chapter is long. Yes, I'm up at two a.m when I have french test later today. This is all for you guys. SO if I fail, I failed for you. You owe it to me to review. :'( please, please, please.
I'm kidding, but seriously, REVIEW. I WANT YOU OPINIONS AND IDEAS.
